The ramblings of one home-brew electronics, firmware engineer and pilot.

Thursday, February 9, 2012

A very interesting chip

I have been poking around looking at floating point processors and have come across a very interesting chip that I have bookmarked for future investigation, the Micromega uM-FPU64. So far I have not been able to find anyone with stock on this chip other than the earlier V3.1 32 bit version. For USD25.00 in single unit quantities, this is quite the bargain.

Features

64-bit and 32-bit Floating Point

A comprehensive set of 64-bit and 32-bit floating point operations are provided.
See the uM-FPU64 datasheet for details.

64-bit and 32-bit Integer

A comprehensive set of 64-bit and 32-bit integer operations are provided.
See the uM-FPU64 datasheet for details.

User-defined Functions

User-defined functions can be stored in Flash memory. Flash functions are programmed through the SERIN/SEROUT pins using the uM-FPU64 IDE. A high level language is supported, including control statements and conditional execution.

Matrix Operations

A matrix can be defined as any set of sequential registers. The MOP instruction provides scalar operations, element-wise operations, matrix multiply, inverse, determinant, count, sum, average, min, max, copy and set operations.

FFT Instruction

Provides support for Fast Fourier Transforms. Used as a single instruction for data sets that fit in the available registers, or as a multi-pass instruction for working with larger data sets.

Serial Input / Output

When not required for debugging, the SERIN and SEROUT pins can be used for serial I/O. A second asynchronous serial port, with hardware flow control, is also available as a local device using the DEVIO instruction.

NMEA Sentence Parsing

The serial input can be set to scan for valid NMEA sentences with optional checksum. Multiple sentences can be buffered for further processing.

String Handling

String instructions are provided to insert and append substrings, search for fields and substrings, convert from floating point or long integer to a substring, or convert from a substring to floating point or long integer. For example, the string instructions could be used to parse a GPS NMEA sentence, or format multiple numbers in an output string.

Table Lookup Instructions

Instructions are provided to load 32-bit values from a table or find the index of a floating point or long integer table entry that matches a specified condition.

MAC Instructions

Instructions are provided to support multiply and accumulate and multiply and subtract operations.

A/D Conversion

Multiple 12-bit A/D channels are provided (six on 28-pin device, nine on 44-pin device). The A/D conversion can be triggered manually, through an external input, or from a built-in timer. The A/D values can be read as raw values or automatically scaled to a floating point value. Data rates of up to 10,000 samples per second are supported.

Real-Time Clock

A built-in real-time clock is provided, for scheduling events or creating date/time stamps.

Timers

Timers can be used to trigger the A/D conversion, or to track elapsed time. A microsecond and second timer are provided.

External Input

An external input can be used to trigger an A/D conversion, or to count external events.

Foreground/Background Processing

Event driven foreground/background processing can be used to provide independent monitoring of local peripherals. The microcontroller communicates with the foreground, while background processes can be used to monitor local device activity.

Local Device Support

Local peripheral device support includes: RAM, 1-Wire, I2C, SPI, UART, counter, servo controller, LCD, and VDrive2 devices. The uM-FPU64 can act as a complete subsystem controller for GPS, sensor networks, robotic subsystems, IMUs, and other applications. Local devices are assigned to digital I/O pins at run-time, and controlled with the DEVIO instruction.

Low Power Modes

When the uM-FPU64 chip is not busy it automatically enters a power saving mode. It can also be configured to enter a sleep mode which turns the device off while preserving register contents. In sleep mode the uM-FPU64 chip consumes negligible power.

Firmware Upgrades

When updates become available, the uM-FPU64 firmware can be upgraded in the field using the uM-FPU64 IDE software.